In vehicle applications, starting a frozen or cold fuel cell system has several challenges. Starting a cold or frozen fuel cell stack and related components requires a very specific and carefully coordinated procedure. In order to maximize operating performance, the fuel cell system must be started and warmed up as quickly as possible.
The startup method must be able to handle many different beginning use scenarios. For example, an operator may immediately subject the system to heavy demand before the fuel cell system reaches normal operating temperatures and is capable of fulfilling the power requirements to meet such a demand. Conversely, the operator may place little or no demand on the fuel cell system for an extended period of time, causing components of the fuel cell system to freeze since the fuel cell system is producing water but is not producing sufficient heat.
Another concern facing current fuel cell startup methods is adaptability to specific fuel cell system components and the specific condition of those components. As a stack degrades it may not tolerate the same loading schedule that a new stack can handle, and the variations betweens components in different systems may change the operating requirements of the startup method.
It would be desirable to have an adaptive method of starting a cold or frozen fuel cell that is able to balance increasing a temperature ramp-up rate of the fuel cell system by loading the fuel cell stack quickly without overloading the fuel cell stack or forcing it shut down due to low cell voltage, and account for different beginning use scenarios that an operator may place on a cold or frozen fuel cell system.